Editing Ecclesiarchy (section)

==Organisation==

At the top of the organisation is the Ecclesiarch him/herself, who is essentially the '''Space Pope''' and the equal-<s>second</s> [[Roboute Guilliman|third]] (after the Master of the [[Administratum]] and along with the Fabricator-General of [[Mars]]) most influential individual in the entire Imperium.

Beneath him (or her) are the '''Cardinals''' of the '''Holy Synod'''. Although there are Cardinals all over the Imperium, each ruling their own Diocese ''(which is the religious equivalent to a '''sector''' in terms of size, but not organised the same way)'' the Holy Synod of Terra has a conclave of Cardinals who assist the Ecclesiarch in making religious decisions. Also, occasionally one of the members of the Holy Synod gets a seat on the [[High Lords of Terra]], which is essentially giving the Ecclesiarchy more influence in Imperial affairs (particularly if the Abbess of the Adepta Sororitas gets a seat at the same time, [[Morvenn Vahl|however...]])

Beneath the Cardinals it moves downwards through the varying ranks of preachers, clerics, bishops, vicars, abbots, ministers, confessors all the way down to the the guys who light candles at shrines.

Aside from everyday priesthood there are a number of spin-off organisations that operate under the auspices of the Ecclesiarchy in one way or another.

===Adepta Sororitas===
{{Main|Sisters of Battle}}

While the sisters of battle represent the military might of the Ecclesiarchy the other orders of the sororitas also play highly influential roles for the church.

The '''[[Orders Dialogous]]''' keep the records and curates the relics of the Ecclesiarchy and are some of the most well educated and respected people in the entire Imperium when it comes to researching histories, languages or customs.

While the Schola Progenium trains generations of orphans to become "ideal" Imperial citizens, the '''[[Orders Famulous]]''' get the job of "attending" the next generation of the Imperial elite. Teaching and educating key figures in Imperial nobility, these individuals grow up to be some of the most devout followers of the Imperial Creed and inevitably strong supporters of the Ecclesiarchy.

The '''[[Sister Hospitaler|Orders Hospitaler]]''' are perhaps the most appreciated of the sisterhood, being those who are medically inclined and trained in the arts of healing; making them welcome additions in warzones and noble households alike. Though they are a non-militant order, they are often exposed to frontline combat and many of them are hardened veterans who make ideal candidates for recruitment by the [[Inquisition]]; where their skills at keeping subjects alive also makes them highly effective interrogators.

===Schola Progenium===
{{Main|Schola Progenium}}

===Frateris Militia===
While the military might of the Ecclesiarchy was heavily curtailed by the '''[[Decree passive|Decree Passive]],''' that hasn't actually stopped them from summoning huge amounts of manpower when they need it.

All a cardinal needs to do is point somewhere and say the word "CRUSADE!," and people will show up in their millions, either out of fervour to serve the Emperor, or because people who don't show enough fervour tend to end up on fire. Most of them will be untrained and ill-equipped, but when it comes to manpower, the Ecclesiarchy can usually rely upon numbers to rival that of the [[Imperial Guard]].

Some Ecclesiarchy-ruled worlds, such as Piety V (featured in ''Carcharodons: Outer Dark''), utilise Frateris Militia as a de-facto PDF. Since these are standing armies, this practice is technically heresy, but since a planetary governor is feudally obligated to ensure the security of his world, it is a practice which is widely tolerated when in the legal persona of Planetary Governor, and still has to hand over their best recruits to the Imperial Guard.

[[Games Workshop]] actually used to have rules for the Frateris Militia waaaay back in the 2nd edition ''Sisters of Battle'' Codex, but they vanished inexplicably, and reappeared briefly as a Troops choice for ''Codex: Witchhunters'' in a White Dwarf trial rules article under the name "Zealots", which could equally have represented [[Redemptionist]]s as well as the Frateris.

They haven't been forgotten though, and FFG published rules for playing one in [[Dark Heresy]], which is a decent way of giving more non-combat oriented careers the basic training in weapons and a few combat talents far earlier than they could have otherwise obtained.

===Crusader Houses===
{{Main|Crusaders}}
A breach of the '''Decree Passive''', Crusaders are professionally trained warrior-monks, equipped with specialist wargear.

[[Crusaders]] are trained in secretive warrior-lodges that are not directly associated with the Ecclesiarchy at all. According to the Codex: Adepta Sororitas the Crusaders associated with the Ministorum are recruited from the "Guard of the Cardinals Crimson". However, this may be a front, as many Crusader Houses are sponsored by the [[Inquisition]], though it is uncertain if the Ecclesiarchy itself actually knows about that. For its part, the [[Inquisition]] deliberately allows the Ecclesiarchy to possess Crusaders in small numbers - there are all manner of uses for having a provable crime always ready to hand that the Ecclesiarchy is guilty of and they are really good at killing things too.

Membership is by invitation-only, chosen from those who will make ideal hand-to-hand warriors. Within the house they are deeply immersed in the Imperial Creed and are trained to be perfect bodyguards, putting the well-being of their holy charges ahead of themselves.

===Battle Conclave===
{{Main|Ecclesiarchy Battle Conclave}}
Whenever a traveling priest (or sometimes an Inquisitor) wants a little more protection, they can form up an [[Ecclesiarchy Battle Conclave]]. Because they can't have too many men due to the Decree passive, many opt instead to go with the scariest, most righteously out-of-their-mind fanatics they can find. Mostly formed from [[Arco-flagellant]]s, Crusaders, and [[Death Cult Assassin]]s, this terrifying force would make anyone think twice about fucking with him.

===Missionarius Galaxia===
Not all of the priests tend shrines or preach at mass. One of the most well known functions of the Ecclesiarchy is bringing religion to the heathen humans beyond the territories of the Imperium.

Most of the missionaries accompany the Imperial Guard as they expand outwards, conquering or reconquering worlds, making certain that those who rebuild afterwards become loyal subjects of the Imperium.

Some Missionaries take it a bit further and don't even travel with Imperial Guard regiments, instead preferring to travel alone to hostile human worlds and bringing the light of the Emperor to them in more peaceful ways. These '''Torchbearers''' are expert survivalists and considerably more resilient than normal Ministorum Priests, having to live and prosper without any back-up at all.

Oddly, Missionaries tend to be some of the most tolerant and even tempered parts of the Ecclesiarchy even if their faith is beyond question and reproach and missionary lore as a whole is rather devoid of the usual grimdark and is instead...actually a really reasonable approach? As the Ecclesiarchy regards enforcing a single, consistent central dogma pure of any syncretic elements to be far too hard to do for too little reward in a rare example of common sense, Missionaries are instead expected to work with the heathens they want to convert and ease them into their new faith. Indeed overall the Imperium is far more tolerant of heathens then heretics and generally prefers an unusually soft and diplomatic approach to dealing with the former.

After all, a heretic or apostate is someone who knowingly flouts or abandons a faith like the Imperial Creed, but heathens by definition were never part of the faith to begin with; and so have a measure of innocence, especially if their heathenry was born of ignorance. And as part of this innocence and recognising the impossibility of enforcing a strict and singular dogma, the Missionary usually tries to modify the local faith into something more compatible with the Imperial Creed rather than tear their religion down and start from scratch.

In moves that are directly inspired by real world conversion efforts by monotheistic faiths throughout history, missionaries will look for the god or goddess held in the highest esteem by the local culture and then identify them with the Emperor. The other gods will then be equivocated to either aspects of the Emperor or to the most similar Imperial Saint in the canon depending on what works best. Often the Missionary will even study the theology of the local culture so in depth that they'll successfully argue that the Imperial Creed is a truer interpretation of the religion than what the established authorities are preaching.

They also try to preserve most local traditions as much as they can in order to make converting an easier sell with a few exceptions, which are usually traditions we in the modern world would find abhorrent like say; ritual rape or eating people. Cannibalism for example is strictly forbidden by the Imperial Creed <s>except when Space Marines eat people's brains apparently</s> and so missionaries usually try to abolish such traditions and replace them with more symbolic eating of flesh and blood like how at the catholic church the "body and blood of christ" you eat at mass is just bread and wine that stands in for eating the poor bastard of a carpenter. They do however, try to change attitudes towards psykers and mutants to be more in line with official policy; psykers should be compliant servants who will willingly accept being taken by the black ships to serve humanity in some way, not kings and lords ruling over normal humans/being left untrained and exploding into WTFBBQDAEMONS and that unstable mutants need to be culled, while stable [[Abhuman]] sub-species are officially sanctioned and accepted if not wholly equal.

Whether the missionary works from the top down by converting the powers that be who will then enforce the imperial creed on the plebs or from the bottom up by converting the masses who will rise up against their heathen overlords and create a new society depends on the missionary's preferences and what they feel is easiest. As bringing new souls and cultures into the Emperor's light is holy work, just about all strategies are allowed in the name of saving the souls of heathens from the dangers of their ignorance.

As missionaries usually want converts, not corpses; use of force is generally a last resort and even then it's usually said force is used non-violently like having a rogue trader's ship eclipse the sun over their location to spook the primitives or show off the power of the imperial guard. The main exception to this is when the local religion is found to be based around xenos, abominable intelligence, or chaos worship. At this point the missionary's expected task is to call in the guard, sisters, or some other available military force to crack some skulls.

===Confessors & Witch Finders===
Like the [[Inquisition]], the Ecclesiarchy concerns itself with rooting out heresy and apostasy. Unfortunately for the Ecclesiarchy it is not officially sanctioned to do so by the Imperium. However that has not stopped the ministorum from trying.

'''Confessors''' are loud, bombastic and charismatic priests of the Imperial Cult, but are not given specific duties like most members of the priesthood. Instead they are given carte blanche to travel freely from settlement to settlement and "cleanse" them of their sins. Typically by performing rousing soapbox rants about how wicked thoughts make <s>baby Jesus</s> the EMPEROR cry. So people are encouraged to come forward to confess their sins to the confessor where he can decide an appropriate penance for them to clear their consciences. Confessors can be like the 40k equivalent of celebrities, and there is often great anticipation of their arrival in town, and big crowds show up to hear them preach (and probably hear their neighbours salacious confessions too). Sometimes people don't want (or have sins) to confess, so the confessor has to take it a [[RIP AND TEAR|little bit further]] to coax the individual to think hard about their crimes. Usually to the point of the penance afterwards being more merciful than the coaxing itself. Frequently employed as Inquisitorial henchmen.

'''Witch Finders''' fulfill much the same function, except are far more pro-active in "finding" sinners but are not necessarily required to be ordained priests, and many of whom are actually [[Inquisitor]]s-in-training. Results can vary in their effectiveness in finding heretics though, since they usually take a religious approach to determining the guilty rather than an investigative approach like normal "sane" people. Some examples of this crazy manner of determining guilt is to lock a suspect in an airlock and evacuate the air for an hour, Or to bury a suspect to his neck in sand and sew their mouth shut and leave them for a week... if they survive then they are deemed a witch and must be incinerated. While this is logically true, since if they survive they MUST be supernatural, it doesn't seem very hopeful for the innocent now does it? At least the Inquisition-proper occasionally gives you some intelligent form of investigation, even if you still die for being innocent.


===Adulators===
{{Main|Adulators}}
Like the Inquisition and all others, they also have their own Space Marine Chapter lapdogs.